Monday, 14 April 2014

Cultural Community Centre Watch

It seems that at least once a week I discover some new community centre project in the UK, providing vibrancy and culture to local
communities. A recent article in the Guardian proposes a transformation of cultural
organisations into “vital, cherished hubs of their local community, making
their disappearances unthinkable.” Many
centres are already hives of activity including classes and workshops at the
Battersea Arts Centre and the Albany’s commitment to open its doors to the
people of southeast London.

Outside of London, however, the funding climate is
harsher. Annabel Turpin of the ARC in
Stockton insists that “arts have a much bigger part to play in the lives of
local people.” She plans to open up her
organisation as much as possible to the community, “giving people permission to
come in and use the building.” Her
centre provides activities for young, old and every demographic in
between. In a similar vein, mac
Birmingham boasts high levels of local engagement. Its multi-art form centre allows for a wide
range of activities.

A key asset of cultural community centres is obviously their
space. This is recognised by Chapter Arts
Centre in Cardiff and Farnham Maltings in Surrey. The director of the latter, Gavin Stride, said, “For us to thrive – to be truly popular –
we need to become relevant to more people and improve our usefulness.”

As public space shrinks, art centres remain some of the only
places that can be enjoyed without necessarily having to buy anything, a fact
many people are not aware. Some centres
are actively handing ownership over to local people, such as Contact,
Manchester where a group of young people from the area play a key role in how
the venue is run. This allows for a
greater interactive conversation with the audience as their voices are
increasingly being represented in the arts organisation’s decision making structures.

These anecdotes are a sample of some of the exciting new
ways in which local communities are coming together to produce and enjoy the
arts. Here’s hoping that these centres
remain vibrant, become sustainable and stand as examples for other communities.